RWood

Oh, I love hickory nuts and black walnuts. Seems in the South, they are easier to get. I used to sit on my aunt's carport with a brick trying to crack hickory nuts from her tree. So much effort for so little meat out of them. I'll have to order some. My aunt used to make a great black walnut cake, but it had cream cheese icing on it.

My grandmother always made a "Danish Cake". Don't have a clue why it's named that, but it was always a favorite. It was a basic buttermilk cake that had chopped dates and chopped pecans in it. Then a cooked icing of buttermilk, sugar, butter and coconut was poured over it. I still have the recipe and have wanted to make it, but haven't had an occasion. But, I need to fine one .

I forgot about the Cara Cara. A relatively new variety, no? Do you peel them, juice them, or cut 'em up? They are my fave for sure. I love them any which way . I made a Cara Cara sorbet once and it was so good. Mandarins and Blood Oranges are up there too.

Very cute!

Nothing is worse than macarons not working, mainly because or the cost of the nuts/nut flour. I wanted espresso macs, and after two failed attempts (one French method and one Italian, which I have never liked), I went back to a previous recipe, modified it a little bit, and had success. I guess I was out of practice, it's been a while since I made them. Got a couple more flavors to make tomorrow, hopefully they won't give me grief .

Sounds like somewhere between the reheating of the ganache and the hitting the bottom with a blow dryer (no reason that I see to do that), it's probably throwing the chocolate shells out of temper. I would do as Kerry suggested and trying a higher temper, and try filling your shells while the ganache is still soft enough to pipe. I sometimes just work the pastry bag with my hands to soften it instead of heating it. I've never had any problems with transfer sheets, and I used El Rey's 61% for a long time, tempered at 90 degrees. If you look on El Rey's website, they recommend only melting the chocolate to 108 degrees, which always seemed really low to me. I always melted it to 112-115 and it worked much better. So, maybe think about that as well. I only put the molds in the fridge after I have sealed them if needed. But, they usually just fall out without any trouble.

I don't think there has been anything made for cocoa butter printing at home. The canon printer will work with edible inks, I have a set up that I've been using for a while. I use the Chocolate Artist software and their special sheets for printing, a Canon MP620 printer with edible ink cartridges. The software could be better, with better editing capabilities, but it will work. This software only prints for magnetic molds though. I would think that if you come up with designs and print them with the edible ink, they could be used for a larger printed area. I've found that regular acetate sheets don't work because they don't have anything for the ink to absorb into. The ink will stay wet and smear, plus it doesn't print solid. I personally am not going to get into the whole screen printing thing, I have too much else going on for that. But, this system has worked for me for what I need doing logos, photos, etc. Here are a couple of logos that I have done in the past. I airbrushed the back of them with white cocoa butter to make the designs show up on dark chocolate and to keep the colors true. I just went to the Fancy Food Show in San Fran over the weekend. Only a few chocolate people there as far as transfers and such. Mostly just food, not so much equipment. I did get to meet the people from Chocolat-Chocolat in Montreal though, which was nice.

I've used the formula for the lavender as a guide, but I don't make it in a slab. I didn't feel the lavender was too strong, but I also add vanilla bean to it. I had people tell me if it gets too strong, it tastes soapy. It might depend on how long you steep it. I found about 10-15 minutes is enough. I've meant to try a cold infusion with it, but just haven't gotten around too it. I haven't made the honey passion fruit. I do make a passion fruit filling in white chocolate, and I use Perfect Puree's passion fruit, which is a concentrate. I use it as is, and it's one of my most popular flavors.

that is gorgeous! wow! Thanks! I like making it that way. It's more presentable than scooping out of a trifle dish or casserole pan.

There's all kinds of versions of tiramisu out there. Never been to Italy, so I'm not sure what it is like there. But, I have made it a lot, and I tend to use an Italian sponge cake that is made with potato starch or pipe my own ladyfingers. Or, when it's a really big event, we get the authentic ladyfingers from Italy. I use really strong coffee or straight espresso to soak the layers, sometimes mixing with Amaretto (a chef I work for sometimes likes that in it). I made it this way at an event in Pebble Beach, and everyone raved. I did use Marsala in the filling, which I tend to shy away from, but it worked. When mixing your filling, be gentle with the mascarpone. Everyone wants to beat it to death, and it will separate if you do that. It will have a grainy texture and look bad. And I like to use grated chocolate instead of cocoa in the layering, but use it on top for decoration. Here is one I made for a dinner party, I made the ladyfingers and used them to line the mold I built the tiramisu in.

I recently got the Bamix professional and it's pretty great. I really like it for ganache which is what I got it for. The whipping blade definitely emulsifies better than a traditional blade. I tried an olive oil ganache (didn't like it for texture-kinda vaseliney) and the whipping blade worked really well bringing it together. A previous batch separated that I just whisked together. I need to try out all the different blades though.

I live right next to the ocean, and the water here is terrible. If it's boiled and left to sit in the pot, a white residue forms. Have no idea what it is. I've been using a Brita since I've lived here, and it makes a big difference. Coffee, tea, ice cubes are much better. I prefer using it over buying bottled water and having to recycle bottles and such. Since I'm on my last filter, I may look into other options to see if there is something better. But, Brita is better than nothing.

I've used this recipe for Tres Leches and it worked well. It's a very simple sponge and the lime zest adds a nice flavor. It's very firm and can stand up to the soaking. This is scaled down from a large recipe that makes a full size sheet pan with an extender, and it didn't shrink much. Most sponges don't need the pan sprayed, since they are egg foam based, they do better without it so it can cling to the edges. 6 whole eggs 1 cup sugar 1 cup flour 1 tsp vanilla zest of one lime Whip eggs and sugar to ribbon. Add vanilla and zest. Sift flour and fold into egg mixture. Bake 350 till springs back.

My step-dad is Greek, and he has worked for years to get his right. He uses fresh spinach, green onions, fresh dill, eggs, olive oil, feta, salt and pepper. Some keys that we have found over the years is don't make them too thick (when making in a pan). The bottom of the phyllo will not brown or get crispy otherwise. Use clarified butter for the phyllo (or a combo of olive oil and butter). By clarifying, you are removing the water that will prevent the phyllo from getting crispy. And salted butter adds more flavor as well. You don't need a lot, just lightly brush each sheet. I'm pretty fast with phyllo, and I don't have a problem with it drying out. I just keep a piece of plastic wrap over it. He usually buys a big bag of fresh spinach at Costco, and that will make two 9X13 pans. He just chops it up and mixes everything else with it by hand. The moisture from the eggs and oil wilts down the spinach a little. Score the top of the phyllo before baking into the serving sizes you want, and sprinkle with a little cold water right before going in the oven. Helps prevent the edges from curling. Otherwise, when you cut it, the top will shatter and crumble all over the place and not look as neat.

Well, I rolled out 1800 linzer cookies yesterday to make 900 sandwiched cookies. Today begins the baking and packing of 6000 cookies for a huge banquet tomorrow in San Jose. If I get a chance, I'll take pictures of the chaos .

Digging around on Amazon and found a new chocolate book. Still listed as pre-order, no release date. It has a look inside option, and shows everything from pate de fruit charts to making chocolate showpieces. Looks like another to add to the list .

My website is finally being built, so I've been making chocolates for photos. I lucked out and found someone that is a photographer and web designer. Here are a few more new ones: Red Wine, Lavender/Vanilla, Tiramisu and Ginger.

They are gorgeous! Would you be willing to share your recipe for pomegranate caramel? Thanks The pomegranate caramel is really good. I did a pomegranate ganache last year, and didn't like it all. Here is a link to a basic recipe I found. I fiddled with it until I was happy with it and didn't use the same procedure. I also added some Pama liqueur. http://www.tomric.com/content.aspx?title=recipe24

Gorgeous - I like the middle one best! Second is the orange and green and the white one on the left. Hell, I like the look of them all! Thanks, Kerry. I'm having a hard time coming up with new decorating techniques the more flavors I add.

Here are some new (mostly) holiday/fall flavors. Pomegranate Caramel, Pumpkin, Caramel Apple, Cranberry, Honey Lavender, Gingerbread, Peppermint and Spiced Pear. I've decided I have too many round molds, I need some variety.

You can make pie dough in a stand mixer. My suggestion would be to work the fats into the flour to whatever point you normally do, then dump it out into a bowl and mix the water in by hand. I do this when I make it in a food processor so it doesn't get overworked. One method that can help with flakiness is to dump the dough out onto a worktable before it is totally mixed. Pat the mixture out with your hands to form a rectangle, then fold the dough onto itself like croissant dough. Use a bench scraper to help with any dry bits. Press it together and chill. It can be a done a couple more times. The flour will continue to absorb moisture if it looks too dry when you first do this. Pies are probably my least favorite pastry to make, but this method has helped when I've had to make them.

I tried a recipe I found several months ago that used this technique, but it wasn't worth the effort and mess. I'll read the method in Greweling's book and see how he recommends doing it. The one I tried said to make a caramel, pour it out on a slab, then spread the peanut butter over it. And then roll and fold which would create the layers. It did create the flaky layers like a Butterfinger and tasted very similar, but was a mess from the peanut butter oozing out, and I had to keep rewarming it to be able to fold it. I doubt I would go to the trouble again.

This is the recipe I've used for years. It works great, hold it's shape very well. Here are some cookies I made using this recipe, and you can see they are flat and sharp edged.

I think you could use scratch cake with no problems. Just a firm cake, maybe like a pound cake. And yes you can color white chocolate. Just buy the candy colors that are oil based instead of water based. As suggested above, royal icing could be used, but depends on the flavor and texture you want. And thanks for the nice comments. One a.m. might be a little hard to do though

Since I'm more of a dessert and chocolate person, I have to remind myself that I can still do other areas of pastry. I decided to make croissant dough and then my favorite hazelnut rolls.